"Impossible Frames": Ray-Ban rethinks eyewear at Art Basel Paris
At the Grand Palais the eyewear brand is unveiling a new platform that asks young artists to design frames beyond conventional materials, structure and function.
Graphic: TERRA WORLD NEWS (own graphic based on the sources listed)
Eyewear brand Ray-Ban is a partner of this year's Art Basel Paris and is using the fair to launch a new creative platform, Ray-Ban Impossible Frames. The fair at the Grand Palais opened after previews on 21 and 22 October, with public days running from 23 to 25 October. A total of 211 galleries are taking part. According to the organisers, the exhibition challenges young artists to move beyond conventional materials, structure and function.
Participants were asked to design their own "impossible" frame, free from the constraints of logic, material structure and marketability, Italian optics trade site VisionBiz reports. The installation itself is deliberately raw: plasterboard, concrete and chrome, neon light strips, aluminium and brick walls with exposed cables contrast with the monumental architecture of the Grand Palais. The available reports do not name any participating artists or individual works.
In notes shared with Complex, Ray-Ban summed up the idea: "The feasible replicates what exists, while the impossible creates new worlds." The project follows the brand's appearance at Art Basel Hong Kong, where Ray-Ban presented its RED project. Other fashion houses are also using Paris art week: Louis Vuitton has its own booth at the fair, while Miu Miu is showing an exhibition by filmmaker Alice Diop at the Palais d'Iéna.